After having pursued collage for twenty years\, Mario Naves
has shifted to painting directly on canvas and panel with acrylics and oils
.

\n

Naves’s improvisatory process remains unchanged\,
as does the underlying structural logic of his pictures. What is markedly
different is the degree of surface finish\, vibrant tonal palette and quirk
y equipoise of his spare geometric compositions.

\n

Eac
h image is arrived at through the layering of shapes\, lines and colors. Pi
ctorial relationships\, once stated\, are subsequently altered\, negated\,
tweaked and redefined. Flux is an inherent component of Naves’s process—the
paintings are worked on for weeks and sometimes months.

\n

The resulting pieces are simultaneously clarified and open-ended\, ear
nestly felt and welcoming of caprice. They evince Naves’s ongoing dialogue
with world art\, particularly Indian and Persian miniatures and 16th-centur
y Netherlandish painting.

\n

Mario Naves is an artist\,
critic and teacher. He is a member of the faculties at Hofstra University\
, Pratt Institute and Brooklyn College. He is the recipient of many prizes
and awards\, most recently a Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2011. Naves’s art has
been written about in The New York Times\, Art in America\, The Villag
e Voice\, The New York Sun\, ArtCritical\, Time Out New York and other
venues. His writing has been published in The New York Observer\, City
Arts\, The New Criterion\, Slate and The Wall Street Journal
.

\n

Naves lives and works in New York City. This is his sixth one-per
son exhibition at Elizabeth Harris Gallery.